White Stripes frontman seeks adventure in Canada

White Stripes frontman Jack White told Canada's Jam! Music that the band's upcoming tour of the Great White North, which will hit all 10 of the country's provinces, is based on his "childhood fantasies" about adventures in its vast wilderness. White explained, "As a kid, I saw some cowboy TV shows where they talked about the Yukon a lot, and the Alaskan-Yukon border. Sometimes there'd be like a bank robber or some kind of a cowboy outlaw that kind of went across the border to the Yukon side of it, and these cowboys or Lone Ranger types couldn't get to them quick enough or something...That was always exotic to me."

White also has ancestral roots in Canada. His father's family comes from Nova Scotia and White claims he still has relatives there. The Stripes will play their 10th anniversary show in the province on July 14th.

The 18-city Canadian trek will begin on June 24th in Burnaby, British Columbia and end on July 16th in Newfoundland. The Stripes will hit the U.S. after that, hitting the 16 states they haven't been to yet.

The new White Stripes album, Icky Thump, comes out on June 19th. White said that the title is derived from "ecky thump," a phrase from Northern England that White heard his wife Karen Elson use.

White is currently recording the second album from his other band, the Raconteurs.